giovedì 15 marzo 2012

Ascoli Piceno: My Beloved Town

Every traveler has a place to live, to come back and where he's born. I spent lots of time traveling but at the end every road goes back my lovely hometown. If you travel around Italy for sure you know cities as Rome, Milan and Naples but if you wanna experience the real italian life that's the place for you.
As every part of Italy, you will discover ancient stuff, amazing landscape and least but not the last yummy food and wine as the famous Olive Ascolane (english version) were invented here. It's also famous to be the city of 100 towers, well right now around 30. It was built before Roma so we have this motto here: When Ascoli was Ascoli, Rome was just a field for sheep.



The heart of the city is Piazza del Popolo (People's square) on of the most beautiful square in Italy surrounded by many arch, the famous Palazzo dei Capitani and the church of San Francesco, a romanic-gothic one. People use to walk around here, meeting friends and enjoying a drink in some of the bars in this square. You can't miss a stop at the historical bar Caffè Meletti or if you're a budget traveler sit and take a cheap aperitivo at Bar Centrale.  Palazzo dei Capitani was built on ruins of roman roads and some medieval buildings that you can still visit downstairs.. just a curiosity: looking up from Caffè Meletti to the church san francesco, please stare not the first tower bell but the second one and you will see something let's say weird :). In San Francesco you  can play music with little columns on the entrance in via del Trivio, go and try :). In the same road you can visit Ventidiobasso theater and the cloister of San Francesco as known piazza delle verdure.

Piazza del popolo

From Piazza del Popolo, you can move to Piazza Arringo but on the way if you wanna try a slice of pizza, please have a stop here .  It is another beautiful square where you can visit the Cathedral, Baptistery, Bishop Palace, Town hall with Archeological Museum and art gallery. Come to this place and don't try best  gelato in Ascoli, its a lack in your trip here so relax a bit and admire this square tasting a yummy ice-cream from Yoghi . Main attraction is the Cathedral: it was built on a roman temple and actual one is from century XIV-XV, go inside and have a look at a famous paint Polittico by Crivelli then go downstairs to visit the crypt of Sant' Emidio, our saint. The crypt was the original roman temple and you can see roman ruins and very interesting cemetery full of tombs running below the city, they say for some km.

Piazza Arringo
You still have lots to do and see in Ascoli: just behind a corner of Piazza Arringo you can visit San Gregorio Church built on the walls of an old roman temple. From there you can go up till medieval suburb of Piazzarola where you can visit Sant'Angelo Magno church, are you tired? So keep going up till ex monastery of annunziata now university building and from there you visit Fortezza Pia where you have a wonderful view of all the area. Another way from Piazza Arringo is passing the cathedral and going till a square where you can visit Forte Malatesta and famous Cecco Bridge that legend said it was built just in a night as a wish of Cecco d'Ascoli to the devil...

Forte Malatesta and  Cecco's bridge

Just behind  Forte Malatesta you will see the field of Squarcia where every first sunday of august you can watch the famous medieval knightly tournament called Quintana . In the last years it was added a night edition in the middle of july but Ascoli's inhabitants still consider  august edition the main one. On August 5th we also have our saint's day: Sant' Emidio believed to be earthquake protector and during this day you can watch amazing fireworks just after the end of local bingo. It's very nice to visit the town during this day and take a chance to take part in a dinner in one of the 6 Sestieres where it was supposed to be divided Ascoli in medieval time.


Are you hungry now? As i wrote you you should try fritto misto all'ascolana including olive, cremini and lamb chops, you have many places to go but I suggested as local cuisine to try Trattoria del Pergolato or Trattoria da Middio. If you wanna something local but bit more fancy just very close to Piazza del Popolo have a stop at  Ristorante Piccolo Teatro . After eating here you can see Santa Maria Intervineas Church and followin the road near the church you will reach a square where you have 2 beautiful churches: San Vincenzo and Anastasio and San Pietro Martire.. from there keep walking in another medieval part of the city where you can visit some ceramic shops typical from here and a roman bridge. Just after the bridges you can see old medieval public washhouse where women used to clean their clothes. Coming back take the road named rua delle Stelle but for us it's Rrete li Mierghie :) and very close to it Palazzo dei Longobardi.

Rrete li Mierghie




Well I still have lots to tell you but let's discover by yourself and if I'm in the town I will be glad to show you my city around and discover other beautiful places like Casteltrosino or have a walk in our beautiful mountains too so come and enjoy this little jewel in the central Italy :)))
















giovedì 1 marzo 2012

TUSCANY: WINE, FOOD AND RELAX

First Day

I travel a lot but I keep thinking Italy is a must to visit and this time I had a chance to visit a part of Tuscany not so known by me. I traveled with my lovely dad as I had to share with a person a  coupon  for weekend in a 5 stars hotel in Chianciano Terme. I supposed to be there one week earlier just to relax after India but destiny, coincidence moved this trip one week later. We spent our time in this awesome hotel where we got all we need to relax in the wellness center including gym, spa, Turkish bath and more.
After relaxed in that center where my dad had a nice massage too, we went out for dinner.. well low season so be ready to walk around a lot before finding this yummy restaurant where  you can try Tuscany cuisine but pizza too.

Second Day
 
The day after started with a buffet breakfast where you can eat till die lol so we decided to walk around to discover old town of Chianciano: its very tiny so you need few time to visit main points then we took the car for a tour in Valdorcia.
First stop was Rocca d'Orcia nice medieval village very close by Castiglione d'Orcia where we visited Rocca a Tentennano and the village: small but very beautiful. On the way to San Quirico d'Orcia we had a stop to the famous thermal baths of Bagni Vignoni known since roman time with also interesting ruins of country life in past centuries.
Bagni Vignoni

San Quirico d'Orcia is a very nice village, main spots are Collegiata and San Francesco Church, it's so nice walking around these small medieval roads and palaces. We spent time in a winery too buying some presents for next birthday of my brother in law.. Wines are so famous and you have to taste Brunello di Montalcino or Nobile di Montepulciano, red wines tasty with fruit flavors.
 As we had a very big breakfast we decided to move little bit more till Pienza. Wow Pienza is Unesco heritage as it has a well-preserved old town and it's also famous for pecorino cheese.

Of course first stop was in an Osteria to try this cheese: we had an assorted pecorino cheese meal and one portion of grilled pecorino too and of course you can't go to Tuscany and do no try vinsanto with cantucci :)). After this light lunch ;), we discovered the beautiful main square with the Cathedral, Piccolomini Palace and Borgia palace: its very relaxing walking along corso Rossellino and you can also walk along the medieval walls where we were surprised to find Via del Bacio (kiss).

Last stop it was Montepulciano, if you can ask for the pubblic parking area close to Piazza Grande otherwise be ready to walk a very sharp uphill road before reaching Piazza Grande main attraction of this town. You can visit the Dome and Palazzo Comunale in this square. The fountain in this square is famous too as we shot here New Moon from Twilight series. We ended up the day after another wellness session going to same restaurant and tasting the famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina and Pici al ragù